This book is far from a joyride, but not because it's bleak, nor because it's especially dark and threathening and the reason is simple to explain.
It's because it's deeply human. This is the kind of speculative fiction
that's written to put into question the meaning of civilization, family,
the bounduary between human and alien. This is no self-masturbatory
power fantasy, however pleasurable and even *needed* self-masturbatory
fantasy is.It's a story about two women and their relationships, how it is for them to be young, how it is to grow old. There is no drama, there are tragedies, and they are dealt with matter-of-factly, like any family would. There are no heroes, there's people, choices, mistakes. There is no closure, nor resolution, just life and bungling it through. There is no requirement to LIKE those two women. They are not written to endear. They are written to be rather interesting, though.
And then there's the Fae, the aliens, the things outside and the sacrifices needed to keep them out of the door. This menace is "normalized" for most of the story, until the characters wake up to its true horror of there being no normality at all about faeries. The Fae here are glamorous but as cruel as Terry Pratchett's and much more powerful, like predators, like the bears in Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, only they know, they understand, they are aware and they get abusive instead of just hungry.
The characters are few in number and they are done well. Some of them at some point or another just fall between the cracks of the story and are forgotten or they keep being interesting and don't get the spotlight you'd like. This is no major defect, but it can be a bit jarring. The protagonist speaks mostly through memories, the deuteragonist is a teenager that's not all that likeable precisely because she's a teenager, and because she is the daughter of a very distasteful woman that didn't really educate her well to emotional maturity. The deuteragonist is the only reliable point of view.
Both MC are strong people, and very very understandable in their choices: they are not chosen champions, they are not good nor evil, and they can be wrong about stuff. The world around them is complex and rich, and just out of view, and the main backdrop is an interesting society. The plot flows smoothly, and spares no punches. It's not an "action" plot. There's almost no fighting, no wars and little physical violence. I don't understand what "originality" is, so I won't comment on that: it delivers on its promises.
This book deserves more attention, and I'm happy to start 2017 with such a good story, written in a masterful way.
Originarily posted on Goodreads on Feb. 17, 2017
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